The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is calling on industry to help understand how it can best simplify the capabilities it provides the Defense Department (DoD) in support of an agile and flexible military and civilian force.
During DISA’s Forecast to Industry event today, DISA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner explained that DISA’s number one priority is to provide efficient and easy-to-use capabilities to the DoD for current operations, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the current conflict in the Middle East.
“These capabilities we offer are being used more than ever by the DoD, and they have become increasingly critical to our command and control. We are looking to industry to help make these capabilities better every day,” Skinner said.
Without effective capabilities, the department and its workforce – both civilian and military – cannot be agile, flexible, or capable of going up against known and possible adversaries, he added. Through its industry partners, DISA intends to “deliver critical capabilities” that are simple to use and do not require multiple years of expertise.
“We need to ensure that those charged with operating, sustaining, and maintaining these capabilities can do so effectively without ten years of experience, training, or education. So, where can we simplify? That’s very important to us,” Skinner said.
As part of this need to simplify, Skinner highlighted current modernization efforts underway at the department and explained that DISA is turning to its industry partners to understand where and how they can modernize current capabilities. Skinner explained DISA wants industry’s help in understanding how to “modernize legacy capabilities without a lag in service and efficiency.”
“Simplify, simplify, simplify,” Skinner said. “We need to simplify our processes, we need to simplify the infrastructure, we need to simplify the configurations, and we need to simplify how we do business with each other.”
In addition, Skinner highlighted a need for both the public and private sectors to upskill the current workforce to “be ready to fight tomorrow’s fight.” And this is where critical partnerships between industry and the Federal government – in particular the DoD – come into play, he explained.
As part of this effort, DISA released a plan aimed at shifting the agency’s training, recruiting, and retention efforts to meet its workforce challenges.
In June 2023, DISA unveiled its Workforce 2025 initiative, which provides a framework to rapidly adapt to inevitable technological advances and the evolving global security landscape to ensure the agency delivers relevant, cutting-edge capabilities that are resilient and agile, enabling warfighters to maintain an operational and competitive edge.
“We continue to upscale our workforce while we upskill and upscale the hardware, systems, networks, and the capabilities to ensure that we have the most formidable fighting force,” Skinner said.
